workforce Social workers likely to lead joint teams

Fears that social work might become dominated by health and
education professionals once the children’s green paper is
implemented have been dismissed by the chief executive of the
General Social Care Council.

Lynne Berry told delegates at a conference in Birmingham last week
that social workers should not look upon the future of children’s
services as a “frightening world” in which their role would be
taken over.

Instead, it was more likely that social workers would be in the
strongest position to lead multi-disciplinary teams because of
their past experience of doing so, she said.

Berry added that social workers were admired and respected by their
colleagues in health and education and that the future was “very
bright for social workers”.

On the training proposals in the green paper, Berry said that while
the GSCC believed common knowledge and a set of shared skills for
people working with children made sense, it did not support plans
for a common qualification.

Such a move would destroy specialist skills, she said, adding that
the GSCC was considering creating advanced skills social
workers.

Earlier, academic Bob Holman described the green paper as
“disappointing” because it dealt with large-scale reorganisation
but ignored families living in deprived areas.

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